RSS Feed

This morning I turned off the RSS feed for this blog.  Some of you may be wondering what that is.  Basically that is the program that allows others to syndicate the material we publish here.

I figured there would be some questions about this, so I tried to guess what they would be, and answer them below.  If you have any additional questions, feel free to use the comment section.

Will this cause a drop in traffic? Yes, there's no question that Raising Kaine will now be the #1 Virginia blog for web traffic.  From what I can see this morning being removed from these services has dropped traffic about 10%.  I don't know if this will improve when people learn that we are no longer being syndicated or not, and frankly I don't care.

Why are you doing this?  We had a lax policy on this for a while.  However one rogue website, operated by an editor of the Virginian Pilot at night has been taking our material, republishing it, and then creating a place to rate it.  From the small traffic on that site he is then creating a rating system on how "influential" blogs are.  The work I have done here speaks for itself, and I'm not interested in being rated- especially in a system that has seen SWAC Girl rated higher than Raising Kaine in influence some weeks.  Nothing against SWACGirl but something like this can only be taken in good humor if it is based in reality.  I won't participate in a lie.

Why not just ask to be removed from that one site? We did, and the rogue operator refused.

Can he do that? Probably not, but the only way to force him to remove us would be to sue. 

Couldn't you just block his feed?  Not on typepad.  Raising Kaine is in the process of trying to do that, which will allow them to remain on other syndication services.

Should we contact the Virginian Pilot?  I talked to the Editor of the Editorial Page, Dennis Hartig last week.  He told me the operator of this site did so on their own time, and the Pilot was uninvolved with this project.  So there is no reason to contact them directly.  However, having someone who steals content from an unpaid blogger as a money making venture at night is pretty unethical, and the Pilot will have to decide if that is the kind of image they want around the state.

Will this have any impact in the kind of stories we see on NLS?  No.  If you didn't read this site through a syndication before, you won't notice any difference.

Comments

"Nothing against SWACGirl but something like this can only be taken in good humor if it is based in reality."

Great, now I have to clean coffee out of my keyboard.

[phriendlyjaime]

Why is he refusing to take people off hid roll, Ben? I would think that any other place would have no problem with complying with the blogger's wishes.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Jaime, don't call it a blogroll. A blogroll doesn't take the content of the stories themselves.

I was surprised when he refused to remove NLS and RK when we asked.

[Pete in Williamsburg]

I wouldn't know about SWAC Girl if Ben didn't provide her a charity link on his bottom-of-the-barrell link list. Her site has about 12 comments on her entire front page with 4 or 5 from her. Be careful of messing with a political heavyweight like SWAC!

[phriendlyjaime]

Well, I am on it too. Anyone else? We should ask too, see where it gets us.

On the other hand, I have to say; I really don't care whether or not I "win" some contest on BNN. I have friends, have always had friends, and I don't need to win a popularity contest of bloggers. But if there are seriously "adults" out there that actually go to this site and click on themselves over and over again to feel like the coolest of the cool, then I am very, very sorry for them. I cannot imagaine what it must be like to have such low self esteem.

Couldn't the newspaper tell this reporter to take people off who ask or they fire him?

[johnmaxfiled]

Oh, Benny! I can't believe that. You're basically saying, "How dare a amateur blogger like SWAC Girl be rated above a professional like Raising Kaine" or dare I say,....you. It doesn't matter in the least. In fact, I think that garnering that same response for me, would be an honor. BNN's ratings of SWAC Girl over RK is based on many different facets. BNN looks at overall influence--not just how many clicks you get in a day. Shouldn't you be supportive of this and not pouting?

[NotBenOrJohnMaxfield]

Says the man who is NOT on Ben's blogroll, which basically shows how little influence he has...

CURRENT:

Rank Blog
1 Raising Kaine
2 Bloggers 4 Sayre
3 BLACK VELVET BRUCE LI
4 Not Larry Sabato
5 Scott's Morning Brew
6 Mason Conservative
7 From On High
8 Virginia Virtucon
9 Goodbye Ken
10 Below The Beltway
11 ImNotEmeril
12 Ward View
13 Vivian J. Paige
14 Spank That Donkey
15 Waldo Jaquith
16 Spark It Up!
17 General Grievous' Dog
18 SWAC Girl
19 Extreme Mortman
20 Bearing Drift

Isn't it funny how the Castle bloggers are all on here? People that aren't even known in the blogosphere? EMERIL above VIVIAN?!? Interesting.

[SWAC Girl]

Ah, come on, Ben ... why did you single ME out as the example? Thanks a lot!

Ever since I entered the blogosphere I've tried to write what I believe and am passionate about. I'm more emotional than you guys and maybe that's what sets me apart. However, I think there's room for all of us.

I admire those of you who are very factual in your writing, listing poll data and such, and I learn from reading it. I'm the political junkie, too, and pour over the polling facts and figures.

However, that's not my strength when writing. I feel strongly about supporting the troops and working within my community so I write about that.

I was amazed -- and pleased -- to be # 3 last week on BNN but didn't say anything because it would be bragging. Also, the higher you go, the harder the fall ... and this week I'm # 18.

Having said that, I take it with a grain of salt. It's nice to receive a little recognition but, at the same time, it's not the end of the world. Those of us who don't have the thousands of hits of the popular blogs are given a chance with variables being considered such as influence, content, etc.

I'm sorry you feel as you do, Ben. My thought would be you're taking it way too seriously but, then, you are more serious about your blog than I am about SWAC Girl. Mine is cathargic, a way to express my opinions about political issues because I disagree with much of the MSM's viewpoints.

I like BNN, I like Dave, and I like what he's doing because I think it adds a little fun into the blogosphere.

We'll miss you at BNN. Keep up the good work!

[anon]

pour over the polling facts and figures.

What do you pour on it? Water? Juice? Booze?

I only read the blog when I see a new article has been posted via the RSS feed. If you no longer send out notices via RSS, I will not be reading your blog. I learned of this via RK.

It raises the ?, are you really stopping the RSS feeds because you are being over taken by RK? And, are you being over taken by RK because you recently said you were losing interest in posting daily?

[johnmaxfield]

"Says the man who is NOT on Ben's blogroll, which basically shows how little influence he has..."

Oh yea. Great comeback. How originial. Maybe I don't need my ratings to be bolstered by being blogrolled on NLS (nothing against Benny), unlike you. This talk of me 'not adding' (or perhaps, NOT adding) adds nothing to the conversation except a way to divert attention from the discussion at hand. Get over yourself.

"Isn't it funny how the Castle bloggers are all on here?"

Yea it is. Funny perhaps, not because we are 'people that aren't even known in the blogosphere', but that we are BECOMING KNOWN. We are the ones they are reading I guess, otherwise---why would we be at the top of the rankings? Emeril over Vivian?--darn skippy.

[NotBenOrJohnMaxfield]

Get over yourself.

then...

Funny perhaps, not because we are 'people that aren't even known in the blogosphere', but that we are BECOMING KNOWN. We are the ones they are reading I guess, otherwise---why would we be at the top of the rankings? Emeril over Vivian?--darn skippy.

CLASSIC HYPOCRISY. GOOD JOB!

[novamiddleman]

1. EVERYBODY GROW UP

2. Guess what the BNN rankings are based on.... wait for it.... by the people that use BNN... wow shocker

So lets analyze. Who uses BNN.... wait for it... people who are more conservative in general and... wait for it... the Castle people... shocker

3. everybody grow up

I am waiting for leftyblogs to start ranking next so Ben can be in the top

[Kevin]

What in hell does "castle" mean anyway? Did I miss the memo?

"Guess what the BNN rankings are based on.... wait for it.... by the people that use BNN... wow shocker

So lets analyze. Who uses BNN.... wait for it... people who are more conservative in general and... wait for it... the Castle people... shocker"

So it's basically a circle jerk for people to feel better about putting their time and effort into blogging?

[phriendlyjaime]

That site is really interesting, Ben. The more I look at the site and the ratings, which I have never done before, the more I see how easy it must be to be highly ranked.

It looks like ranking is based on other blogs linking to you, on reader ratings, which range from terrible to terrific, scaled 1-10. That's pretty much it, unless they calculate people clicking on the blog from BNN. Well, that makes it pretty easy to be the "winner", it looks like. I have noticed that certain bloggers have formed "alliances" and always cover a story similar to the others in their alliance, and then they link back to all of the posts, including their older posts on the subject. This is not strange, and it certainly helps put the message out there. Is it an echo chamber? Sure it is. A lot of the blogosphere is, though. That being said, I assume it would be very easy to simply click on your own post and your budddies' posts through BNN in order to generate clicks. Lastly, if you stay on BNN all day, and vote yourself and your buddies as terrific, and just click on the "liberal blogs" link and vote them all terrible, it would be easy to make yourself look like the winner. This is, of course, a contest no one really cares about nor takes seriously. But the question remains: are these wiinning bloggers more influential than Lowell at RK, Ben at NLS, or Vivian? OF COURSE NOT. It's a silly, and almost sad, popularity contest in which they are the only ones playing. Ican call myself awesome all day long, but if no one agrees, I am not neccessarily awesome, now am I? (but I am)

Dude, blogging takes up too much time as it is. If you have time to force yourself to be the bestest....get off the computer and do some charity work. Or exercise. Or just have some fun. SERIOUSLY, now...

[novamiddleman]

You will get multiple versions of this story but basically

Back in 2005ish Waldo created the first virginia blog aggregator

Then there were some issues with posts and taking stuff down blah blah typical high school crap

So in response a group of bloggers formed into Castle and joined BNN which was the other major aggregator at the time.

Now there are so many aggregators (conservativa, lefty blogs, old dominion blog alliance, richmond bloggers, etc..) that only accept/filter certain posts you can create your very own virtual political bubble right from the comfort of your computer screen whoopee :-p

[Anon]

wow - talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face.

[Kevin]

"Ican call myself awesome all day long, but if no one agrees, I am not neccessarily awesome, now am I? (but I am)"

I'll call you awesome. I think Thadd would agree (you did cook him breakfast)...so that's two people at least.

"So in response a group of bloggers formed into Castle and joined BNN which was the other major aggregator at the time."

Oh...I thought "Castle" actually meant something.

But it sounds like Jaime is right. People link to each other then click on their links to make it look like they have a virtual machine gun when all they have is a water pistol.

[eileen]

Phriendly, I think you very aptly hit the nail on the head. I've taken the BNN off my site.

[phriendlyjaime]

Sweet. One "you hit the nail on the head", one "Jaime is right", and one "Jaime is aw4esome".

I FEEL VINDICATED!!!!! LINK TO ME!!! DO I WIN A PRIZE!?!?

[Phil Chroniger]

Personally, I have no problem with BNN, plus...has anyone else noticed that BNN is NOT just Virginia, but in several other states, as well.

Hell, Virginia's blogosphere is probably the second most active in the country, behind California (and it's close, IMO).

I'm keeping BNN up there on my site, but that's just me. I guess Ben can do whatever he wants.

[Phil Chroniger]

I've also noticed in the above comments that it seems that only the Democrats and other leftist bloggers are removing BNN.

Interesting...

[brimur]

Ben- I read blogs mostly through RSS and I'm sure I'm not alone. I will try to come and look here separately as I have time but the first thing I do is look through my reader and if i have time go to other blogs that I haven't for various reasons put on my reader.

My confusion is why the hell it matters what this guy is doing?

Your problem is with this guy rating you- and you say that removing RSS is to prevent "participating" in it. Well besides the fact that you're not truly participating in it, it seems like an awfully weird response not only out of proportion to your goal, but completely ineffective to it. Instead of being rated somewhat low you will just be rated the lowest. Now you will simply not even make his top 10 or whatever and you haven't stopped him from rating you. You've just drawn traffic away from your blog. So in effect, you've sought to make his rating come true.

I hope you'll put the RSS reader back and come up with some other way to stick it to the man.

[I.Publius]

"it seems that only the Democrats and other leftist bloggers are removing BNN."

Interesting indeed. They're world class pouters & bedwetters.

[Chris]

This has to be the most useless post ever on NLS.

I've met Ben on numerous occasions and I've found him usually in good humor. For the life of me I cannot understand why this blognet thing bothers you so much, Ben?

Do you REALLY think people take it that seriously? When I look at the rankings, I don't say "holy crap, Tribbett's #9 today, screw him I'm not going to look at NLS anymore/"

The fact is you and the RK guys will continue to dominate becasue your the most established and most viewed. Everyone knows it. So who cares if Mastio wants to have some fun with that? Big deal.

Meethinks there is something more here, a personal issue between Ben and Dave Mastio perhaps?

Because if I did a weekly blog rating--or Hoeft or BVBL--i just don't think it would casue this much grief.

[Jason]

The rankings are moot, it's a circle jerk like any other online poll and based on figures that reflect the data BNN collects, which has been limited for sites like RK and NLS from the get go. Really, the rankings are harmless and if you're confindent enough in your own blog and your abilities, what should you care what some third party site says? Besides, it's not the size that counts...

But targeting this guy's job isn't going to help things.

I think the greater issue is that someone is making money off of other people's contents. BNN is ad driven and provides no real unique content other than some data on what the blogs it covers are talking about, and even then that's limited to some wordpress blogs and never counted RK and NLS's comment sections.

So he's taking other people's creations and profiting while doing everything possible within the site's design to limit actual traffic going to the sites that provide for his cat ontent and not allowing folks to opt out.

Personally, my issue is with someone profiting on the work of others without their consent.

[Terry]

"Nothing against SWACGirl but something like this can only be taken in good humor if it is based in reality."

"Great, now I have to clean coffee out of my keyboard.
"

Comments.of.the.year. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

[Spank That Donkey]

Ben:
You realize you are telling Dave that either RK or NLS is #1 or #2 every time, or you will take your ball and go home...

To the everyday reader, I think you are sounding pretty elitist. (just a little political advice from an amateur to a pro)

For the inquisitive CASTLE is Conservatives Against Short-sighted Truth-challenged Liberal Elites.

This episode seems to be shaping up pretty well, with all the vitriol being thrown at us.

Here's the deal, we are volunteers (i.e. not paid bloggers) somewhat organized, WE actually like one another, and WE are having an impact, otherwise, you guys wouldn't be screaming about us and calling us names..

Who takes the time to talk about and disparage the irrelevent?

[Spank That Donkey]

Oh, Jason..

Why not think about this, who is more entertaining on NLS?

Ben himself (writes post, but rarely comments), or the commenters themselves?

I like NLS because it's fun to debate... WE add the fun to Ben's Blog, and it's for profit.

Now, you are criticizing Dave, who puts a lot of work into what he does aggregating, and BTW innovating... for a capitalistic return?

Are you really sure you are a Republican? I mean seriously?

[Jason]

STD - Were he innovating by using ideas and words of other people for a profit, that's not capitalistic, that's stealing.

That said, I didn't mean for my comment to come across so accusatory. I know first hand that there are certain limitations that may come with the backend of a site like BNN that effect the design, content and redirection abilities of the site. That BNN seems to keep folks at BNN as much as possible makes it more of a self serving tool than one for the blogs, but that may be a design flaw or one inherent in whatever Dave uses as the foundation of the site. It's just a criticism I have of it and one I should take to him. I don't believe he maliciously takes content from others or even tries to pretend it is his own. Just on some level it's the nature of the beast of an aggregating site.

[Jason]

Ben - Also, why remove your RSS and your ability to reach the public merely because you don't like a ranking system that no one really cares about?

[Not Larry Sabato]

I don't think it impacts my ability to reach the public Jason. It just means people come here for my material instead of other places.

[Alton Foley]

"...EMERIL above VIVIAN?!? Interesting."

Come on people. Where was I last week? The week before I wasn't even on the list.

Get real. It's an algorithm for goodness sake. Post more, get linked a time or two, and you go up in ratings. Don't post for a week and you fall off the page.

Am I more influential overall than Vivian? Of course not. Was I last week? Who knows. It's just the way an experimental algorithm shook out. Check out Dave's other BNN editions, we are the laboratory for this thing. Give him a chance to work it out.

As one who works with such algorithms daily I would love to see his equation, but I would never ask for that privilege until he claims it is infallible.

[Alton Foley]

"So in response a group of bloggers formed into Castle and joined BNN which was the other major aggregator at the time."

Heh...

Not even close. I found out I was listed on BNN by checking my statistics.

Of course all you Democrat bloggers will never believe that. (Or should that be Democratic?)

[Alton Foley]

"Personally, my issue is with someone profiting on the work of others without their consent."

Jason, you choose whether or not to publish an RSS feed. Most bloggers do not know that it is possible to limit that feed to the first X number of characters or the first paragraph. Dave chose from the beginning NOT to publish the entire feed of those that do not limit it thusly.

Other aggregator publishers do not limit themselves in such an ethical manner. I can go to some aggregators and read a blogger's entire post and never have to visit that particular blog. I commend BNN for the decision to limit EVERY feed, whether the blogger is savvy enough to st it so or not.

[Not Larry Sabato]

Alton, and what about bloggers that have very short posts?

[Jason]

I'll back Alton up and say novamiddleman's timeline is a little out of whack. BNN was not only around long before the whole SWAC/Waldo thing and most if not all of the blogs were already listed. Their ringing endorsement of BNN as an alternative came post Waldo, but that was not because BNN suddenly included them.

BNN is the VA political blogosphere's Technorati. Sure it has it's bugs, but you have to be willing to not only look past those but also anything you may feel is a personal slight because it really does show a lot of interesting data on what conversations are happening in the blogosphere.

[David Mastio]

Ben, Everyone knows the value of your blog is in its original reporting and analysis. You don't have your readers because of one line posts.

[notCASTLE]

Maybe they'll all write a post about it, link to each other, and compliment each other in their own comments sections which no one else reads.

[Alton Foley]

You mean like yours, Ben?

[Alton Foley]

Heh..

notCASTLE, I use Haloscan, something Dave and his tech guy have not been able to figure out yet. There have been many times that I would have ranked in the "most commented' section, but for that. Sorry to blow your theory out of the water, but that's that.

Face it guys. The conservative blogs in Virginia are coming into their own now.

Influence means much more than mere traffic. Check out the difference between Greg L. and Ben. The traffic is similar, but Greg generates more links rather than gratuitous comments. Everyone knows that a comment here is good for a few dozen hits. What is a link to here worth? Zip. Nada.

Think about it. Ben's statistical analysis is great. It's the primary reason I come here. But be honest. How many of you come here to comment just to inflate your hits? That is supposed to make Ben more influential? Get real.

Attempting to come up with an algorithm that measures blog influence is an incredibly ambitious project. let's give Dave, and Virginia blogs in particular, credit for both taking on the project and being worthy of serving as the laboratory.

[Phil Chroniger]

So what I've gathered is that NLS and RK want off of BNN because a state that "leans Red" is now "leaning Red" in the blogosphere.

You know, not all of us think Vivian Paige is the greatest blogger in world. She's good, and she posts well, but there are others who are just as good, and plenty of those others are conservatives, too.

[JohnMaxfield]

"So what I've gathered is that NLS and RK want off of BNN because a state that "leans Red" is now "leaning Red" in the blogosphere."

They come across like that's a bad thing or something...

[novamiddleman]

I think its about time for this thread to close but one last point re links vs traffic

This whole issue is a misunderstanding

Influence means just that how are you influencing other bloggers to link to your page so

Traffic is an entirely different aspect based on the number of people viewing your site.

This whole thing is so confusing because for BNN influence is based on what other bloggers think by linking to posts and by what active users choose to rank and vote on different posts

___________________________

I meant to be clear that BNN was around before the dustup with Waldo and his aggreagator. CASTLE was created and joined BNN after the dustup with Waldo

[Turn PW Blue]

So, because someone at BNN has rankings that aren't based in reality, you cut off the tool that allows the rest of us unwashed masses to know when and if new posts are up. Yup. Makes complete sense to me. HT to RK for getting me here for this posting (the last I'll be readin unless the RSS feed is restored since I won't be bothered to check otherwise). Yup, the earlier comment about noses and faces says it all.

Anyone else find it strange that it seems like the Castle'ers knew the formula while no one else did? Wonder if Dave is a fan of their sites and let them in on the secret.

[whackette]

Before this I didn't even know we could rate the blogs.

[David Mastio]

Anon 10:05, so I guess I must have given the formula information to NLS and RK too because they've been top 10 every week? And I failed to give the formula to JR at BearingDrift and Vivian Paige (where I do have friends)?

Does evidence even matter?

[Phil Chroniger]

Not to those who can't stomach the idea of a widely-read conservative blog.

[Rob]

This is possibly the silliest and most infantile reaction I have ever seen in the blogosphere. Thomas Wolfe wrote that "The surest cure for vanity is loneliness." Consider that vanity cured, Ben!

Well, somewhere, BNN still has your feed, and so you must have another one. I want the other RSS Feed for my feedreader!

[cheap jewelry]

Thanks for your share,thanks a lot.Good luck!